09x27 - For Love or Money

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NARRATOR: The disappearance of a millionaire real estate

developer in Las Vegas had all the appearances of foul play.

In his will, he had hinted that something

terrible might happen to him.

And a scuba diver, a ballistics expert, and a pizza delivery

man all provided evidence that his premonition was correct.

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Every minutes, a new home is finished in Las Vegas, Nevada,

making it one of the fastest growing

cities in the United States.

And that's how Ron Rudin made his fortune, building

residential housing in the Las Vegas suburbs.

CARALYNNE RUDIN: Cold Creek was a beautiful development.

It was one of the first developments where people could

go and buy an acre of land, and be at feet,

and maybe degrees cooler in the summertime.

NARRATOR: Despite his success, Ron Rudin

also made some enemies.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: He was known to evict people.

He was known to foreclose on people.

He held their mortgages.

They didn't pay, they had to go.

So there were a lot of people who didn't like Ron Rudin.

NARRATOR: To protect himself, Ron

took the necessary precautions.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: Ron lived in a virtual fortress.

He had a house that was surrounded

by cinder block wall and barbed wire.

And inside were att*ck dogs and this elaborate security system.

And inside that was an armory full of g*ns

r*fles and all this weaponry.

NARRATOR: On a Monday morning in ,

Ron Rudin didn't show up for work as we have always

done in the years he was in business.

PHIL RAMOS: As soon as he wasn't there to open the business,

a half hour before the office opened,

his employees knew something was wrong.

And the fact that he lived feet from the office, also

told them that there was something wrong.

DORIS COWMAN: Ron was not one to disappear, surely.

And he was certainly not one to leave his business unattended.

NARRATOR: Ron's fifth wife Margaret

called police to report him missing.

She said he didn't come home the night before.

PHIL RAMOS: After that night, Ron Rudin

just disappeared off the face of the earth.

There were no ATM transactions, no account activity.

He wasn't seen anywhere.

His cellphone wasn't being used.

NARRATOR: A week later, police found Ron's car in the parking

lot of a gentleman's club just off the Vegas Strip.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: The man who found the car, the night

manager at the strip club, was a former disgraced police officer

in Las Vegas who once had mob ties.

This immediately raised a lot of eyebrows,

and made people wonder is there an organized crime

connection to this disappearance?

NARRATOR: Inside the car, were traces of blood

too badly degraded for DNA testing.

Forensic experts also found mud.

TORREY JOHNSON: Well, the detectives

had developed a theory.

Ron Rudin's body had been transported in the car,

or in a trunk in the car.

NARRATOR: But a forensic analysis

could not determine where the mud came from.

One month later, about miles away,

a man hiking along Lake Mohave made a gruesome discovery.

He found a human skull.

PHIL RAMOS: The skull itself was pretty much intact.

And it was in a ravine about yards away

from an area that had been b*rned and charred,

and, and-- We could see a lot of ash, and a lot of debris,

and a lot of human remains.

NARRATOR: Nearby, police found a gold bracelet

with diamonds spelling out the name Ron.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: It looked like it was placed

there as if somebody wanted them to find it.

-They told me briefly how he was found,

the condition of his body.

It broke my heart that this man had really worked so incredibly

hard, been good to lots of people.

And that would be where he would--

where his last remains would be.

NARRATOR: What started out as a missing persons

case was now a m*rder investigation.

DORIS COWMAN: It was just a complete mystery.

You know, who on earth would, would do it?

NARRATOR: Dental records confirmed that the skull found

on the shores of Lake Mohave belonged to Ron Rudin.

The medical examiner determined that Ron had been sh*t

in the head four times with a . caliber p*stol.

Not far from where the skull was discovered was a fire pit.

Tests on the soil indicated Ron's body had been cremated.

PHIL RAMOS: Once the fire started,

the fat kept the fire going, much like you would

burn a piece of meat on a barbecue.

-I know it sounds kind of disgusting.

But you know, in forensics, you know,

that's what you deal with when you're

trying to prove what happened.

NARRATOR: Also in the pit were several strips of metal

and the locking mechanism, which looked like pieces of a trunk.

It was clear to crime scene investigators

that this was not an organized crime hit.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: You know, people

wanted to think it was a mob hit.

And the fact that Ron's car was found behind a strip club

after he disappeared only added to sort of the unseemly, uh,

feel of the case.

NARRATOR: A look into Ron's background

revealed several potential suspects.

PHIL RAMOS: Ron was known to be you know,

what you would call today, is a player.

He had girlfriends, and had affairs, um,

according to friends and relatives.

Certainly didn't deserve to be m*rder*d over it.

But people get k*lled for less.

NARRATOR: One of the women Ron was allegedly involved with,

Sue Lyles, told police about this anonymous letter

her children received in the mail

shortly before Ron was m*rder*d.

SUE LYLES [VOICEOVER]: Your mother

has been screwing Ron, and keeping

the secret from his wife and her husband.

You're being told now to be prepared for a big scandal.

NARRATOR: When Ron saw this letter,

he was furious and convinced that his wife

Margaret had written it.

Margaret denied having anything to do with it.

A search of the Rudins's home turned up nothing suspicious.

But the search of Margaret Rudin's antique store in town

was far more telling.

PHIL RAMOS: I found two receipts for two

humpback trunks or steamer trunks.

And by then, we knew that that's what the body was found in.

I noticed that one trunk had been sold to Margaret's sister.

And the other trunk, there was no indication in her inventory

that it was sold.

But it was nowhere in the store.

NARRATOR: And in Ron's will was another clue.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: Ron had basically left a clue

to solving his m*rder in his will.

And in his will, he said that if he d*ed by violent means,

and he even specified g*nsh*t or some other thing,

extraordinary steps should be taken to look into this death.

And people should look into whoever

was going to get the money, the beneficiary.

CHRIS OWENS: And he gave a huge portion of his estate

over to friends, and coworkers, and people

that he'd had some sort of relationship or trust

in the past.

And he really enriched them after his death.

And even during his life, he could

be a very, very generous individual.

NARRATOR: Ron's fifth wife, Margaret,

was to receive the bulk of his estate,

which was approximately $ million.

DORIS COWMAN: When it eventually came out

that there was that much money involved,

it was, it was really a shock to us.

NARRATOR: Although police found nothing suspicious when they

searched Rudin's home, a local handyman told police,

he saw plenty that was suspicious when he worked there

just days after Ron disappeared.

PHIL RAMOS: He worked for Margaret.

He helped her decorate.

And he, uh, helped her clean up.

She told him, get rid of this mattress.

Get rid of the bed.

And tear out the carpet.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: He found this dry, gooey, crunchy material

in the carpeting that he was sure was blood.

NARRATOR: The handyman helped Margaret convert

the master bedroom into an office.

Although the room had been redecorated,

investigators decided to test the walls and ceiling

for blood that may have been removed.

DORIS COWMAN: Used the luminol.

It looked like the Milky Way.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: Lit up like a Christmas tree.

They were certain this was the death scene.

MIKE PERKINS: One of the homicide detectives

was walking around.

And he had kind of a funny look on his face.

And then he stopped.

And he said, wow, I think I've been in here before.

NARRATOR: And he was right.

years earlier, Ron's second wife, Peggy,

sh*t and k*lled herself in that same bedroom.

Now investigators couldn't be certain

whether it was Ron's blood on the walls and ceiling,

or that of his previous wife's su1c1de.

But on the wall, just above where the Rudin's bed had been,

was a photograph of wife number five Margaret Rudin.

And on it was an important clue.

The investigation into the m*rder of Las Vegas

millionaire, real estate developer Ron Rudin

had initially focused on his ex-wives and business contacts.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: We looked at a bunch of different people,

other business associates, people who worked with Ron,

other ex-wives, other relatives.

But everything came up empty.

NARRATOR: Inside Ron Rudin's bedroom,

forensic scientists found evidence of blood

on the walls and ceiling, blood that had been removed.

Forensic scientist Mike Perkins performed

a microscopic examination of the few blood drops that remained.

MIKE PERKINS: We measure the width

and the length of the stains.

And using a real simple mathematical formula,

we're able to determine the approximate impact

angle of those blood drops on those surfaces.

NARRATOR: Perkins concluded the blood hit the wall

at high velocity consistent with g*nshots from two locations.

Several sh*ts originated from the right side of the bed.

And one from the left.

Ron's previous wives told investigators that Ron always

slept with the right side of his head on the pillow.

Not surprisingly, the medical examiner

found four b*llet holes in the left side of Ron's skull.

PHIL RAMOS: Once we had placed it in that position

that Ron would have slept, the holes and the directionality

of the b*llet wounds matched perfectly

with the high-velocity blood spatter that was on the wall

and on the ceiling.

NARRATOR: But whose blood was it?

PHIL RAMOS: We learned from the housekeeper

that Ron, when he was getting ready in the morning

would cut himself shaving and would dab himself with a, uh,

handkerchief.

NARRATOR: Investigators located that handkerchief

in Ron's bathroom, then compared the blood to the blood found

on the walls and ceiling of the master bedroom.

And it matched.

-The odds that were listed in the DNA report were one in

billion odds that it was anybody else's other than Ron's.

NARRATOR: There was a photograph of Margaret Rudin hanging

on the wall of the bedroom above the bed, which showed evidence

that some kind of liquid had been

professionally removed from the picture.

Investigators believe that liquid was Ron Rudin's blood.

Based on the forensic evidence, the police

decided to arrest Margaret Rudin for her husband's m*rder.

PHIL RAMOS: My partner had called her attorney and said,

hey we've got a, uh, an indictment on your client.

Will you surrender her or do we need to go get her.

He says, I don't know where she's at.

Sure enough she was gone.

Gone.

Disappeared and was in the wind for a long time.

NARRATOR: Over the next several years,

there were reports that Margaret was hiding

in Arizona, and later in Mexico.

But she successfully eluded police.

CHRIS OWENS: Margaret was pretty effective in her hiding.

She had disguises, hair dyes, books on how to disappear,

different identifications, different diplomas

she'd gotten.

She wasn't your normal run-of-the-mill

absconder from justice.

NARRATOR: In the meantime, a scuba diver

found what looked like a g*n wrapped

in some cloth at the bottom of Lake Mead,

about miles outside of Las Vegas.

The w*apon had a factory-made sil*ncer,

and was turned over to Las Vegas police.

Torrey Johnson restored the g*n and test fired it.

Under a microscope, he noticed that the test

sh*ts had very unusual markings.

And they reminded Johnson of the b*ll*ts

removed from Ron Rudin's skull.

TORREY JOHNSON: I had to spend a lot of time with it.

But when I finished all those examinations,

there was no doubt whatsoever in my mind

that that was the m*rder w*apon.

I called the DA.

And I told him, I said, you're not going to believe this,

but I've got the m*rder w*apon.

-Wow.

You know, wow, look what we've got here.

You know, I mean this is it.

This is, this is, this is the big thing in the case.

NARRATOR: And investigators got another huge break.

Any g*n equipped with a sil*ncer must

be registered with the federal government.

TORREY JOHNSON: The time in the lake, uh,

did some minor damage to the g*n.

But the serial number was still there.

NARRATOR: When Johnson called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,

and Firearms with the serial number of the sil*ncer,

he was told the g*n was registered to Ron Rudin.

Ron had reported it missing seven years earlier, just

after he and Margaret were married.

CARALYNNE RUDIN: What he said was that he

knew Margaret had taken that g*n.

He was convinced of that.

But he kept asking her.

And naturally, she would say no.

PHIL RAMOS: The only one who had access

to where the g*n was at, besides Ron, was Margaret.

NARRATOR: Initially, Ron had no idea

why she would have stolen it.

Now, the reason is clear.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: Ron loved two things

in this world, g*ns and women.

And in one night those two very tragically came

together and caused his death.

NARRATOR: But the question remained.

Where was Margaret Rudin?

After Margaret Rudin had eluded police for close to two years,

a true crime television show featured the case,

and broadcast Margaret's photograph.

A viewer in Revere, Massachusetts

reported that a woman matching Margaret's description

was living near him in an apartment.

Police interviewed employees of the post office

across the street from the apartment who confirmed

the woman matched Margaret's description.

PHIL RAMOS: The take-down was a classic.

You know, the Revere cops, God bless them.

They did a great job.

NARRATOR: So they set up a surveillance

and waited for an opportunity.

PHIL RAMOS: Margaret had ordered Domino's

or some pizza delivery.

So the quick thinking cops put on a pizza delivery outfit.

NARRATOR: With a fellow officer nearby,

he knocked on the apartment door.

PHIL RAMOS: And she opens the door.

And then she looks at the pizza guy.

And I said, we're the police. We need to come in.

And they said, you know why we're here.

And she says, yeah, it's about that Vegas thing.

NARRATOR: Margaret Rudin was arrested

and charged with her husband's m*rder.

Investigators found evidence that Margaret and Ron

Rudin were having marital problems.

And they also found listening devices in Ron's office,

put there by a company Margaret hired.

CHRIS OWENS: And she had intercepted

a phone call between him and a girlfriend where they agreed,

agreed to meet at one of his rental homes.

And in fact, Margaret, after that,

made a note in the diary that was put into evidence that we

had, uh, where she was going to go

and, and have somebody monitor them.

NARRATOR: Margaret sensed the end of her marriage was near.

And she was obviously aware of the financial implications

of a divorce.

Prosecutors believe Margaret waited until Ron went to sleep,

then used the p*stol she had taken

from Ron's g*n collection years earlier.

The forensic evidence shows that Margaret fired three sh*ts

from the right side of the bed, causing the blood spatter

on the walls, the ceiling, and on her own portrait.

She then moved to the other side, and fired the last sh*t.

Prosecutors were convinced Margaret had help getting Ron's

body into the trunk from her antique store

and out to Lake Mohave where it was cremated.

But to date, no one has been charged.

Prosecutors think Margaret intentionally

left Ron's bracelet in clear view near the fire

so the remains would be easily identified, allowing her

to collect the $ million from his estate.

The m*rder w*apon was thrown to the bottom of Lake Mead, where

a weekend scuba diver happened to find it.

And runs car was left at the gentleman's club

as a diversion.

MICHAEL FLEEMAN: Margaret had been married five times.

But she never had financial stability.

She never made enough money on her own to live on her own.

So police think that Margaret k*lled

for one of the oldest motives in the book.

And that's money.

NARRATOR: Margaret Rudin pleaded not guilty.

Her attorneys presented their own version

of how Ron Rudin was k*lled, essentially

becoming witnesses at the trial.

The judge ruled this was improper.

-I'm, I don't appreciate you yelling at me judge.

-Well, that's too bad.

NARRATOR: The jury found Margaret Rudin

guilty of first-degree m*rder.

She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

CHRIS OWENS: She's a chameleon.

She's a chameleon in reality.

And, uh, and she's a chameleon psychologically.

NARRATOR: The serial number on the sil*ncer

tired all of the pieces together.

DORIS COWMAN: Who would've ever thought

that anyone would find that g*n?

That was a, a miracle in itself.

-The fact that Margaret used a g*n with a sil*ncer

was her downfall.

-It resulted in really unusual markings

on the b*llet that ended up being

the, the whole link to find the g*n.

CHRIS OWENS: You know, juries are often

told eyewitnesses can be mistaken.

They can see things differently.

Sometimes they can outright lie.

But forensic evidence doesn't.

I mean, It is what it is.

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